Sports

Mustangs take SNC

Wiseman hits for 21 as Sutton rolls past Centennial 62-47 for conference tournament title

BY TORY DUNCAN

Coming off a sweet revenge 71-60 win over the Milford Eagles in the semifinals of the Southern Nebraska Conference, the task at hand for the Sutton Mustangs wasn’t quite finished, as to reach the top of the hill in the conference tournament, Sutton would have to beat the 17-1 Centennial Broncos on their home floor Saturday night in Utica.

The Broncos, who already had claim to a home win over Sutton, a 53-45 win on Jan. 4, rolled into the championship finals with Sutton with a dominating 62-33 win over Wilber-Clatonia in the other semifinal bout Feb. 3.

The two teams, no strangers to each other, battled evenly in the first 16 minutes of play Saturday night in Utica, as the host Broncos held a narrow 24-22 halftime lead.

Eight total medalists would be led by Sutton senior Lee Carlson’s Southern Nebraska Conference individual title in the 126-pound class, as the Mustangs headed to Thayer Central High School for the 2019 SNC championships Saturday.

The Mustangs totaled 127 team points to gain a fourthplace finish as a team. David City ran away with the team title, outscoring the host Titans, 203-145.5, as the Scouts won their eighth straight SNC title in Hebron. Milford edged Sutton 130-127 for third place in the meet.

Lee Carlson’s pair of wins in Hebron led the senior to a 37-0 record, as Carlson, after a first round bye, beat a pair of strong challengers, outscoring David City’s Clayton Harris 8-2 in the semifinals, before gaining a 6-3 win over Thayer Central’s Keegan Casey for the weight class title.

Four other Mustangs would gain runner-up finishes for Sutton.

In the annual Clay County hardwood challenge between the Sandy Creek Cougars and Sutton Mustangs, the Mustangs would use an 11-point first half run and a 16-point second half edge to gain a 27-point, 66-39 win over the Cougars to improve to 15-1 on the year, while Sandy Creek fell to 2-12 with the loss.

Sutton held leads of 16-10 at the end of the first quarter and 34-23 at the half, before outscoring Sandy Creek 32-16 in the second half to gain the win.

Cade Wiseman and Jordan Davis paced Sutton’s offensive attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Sandy Creek’s Wyatt Mach led all scorers with 21 points.

Sutton hit on 45.5 percent of their shots from the floor, making 25 of 55 shots, while Sandy Creek was 12-37 from the floor (32.4%).

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After taking on the field at the always, tough High Plains Community Invite in Columbus on Jan. 4-5, the Harvard Cardinals’ wrestling team would head west for action on the mats in Gibbon at the Bill Foster-Gibbon Invite on Saturday, Jan. 12.

Dalton Hansen and Oscar Medina returned from Gibbon after strong performances that would gain Hansen the 106-pound title, while Medina would win three of four matches to place third in the 113-pound class.

In all, Havard tallied 52 team points. Ord captured team gold, winning the meet over Thayer Central, 169.5-163.5.

Hansen’s win in the 106-pound class would run his season record to 17-6. He opened with a 4-1 win over 23-8 Zachary Dikau of Elwood, before advancing to the finals with a 7-3 win over Ein Obermiller of the Grand Island reserves.

Fresh off of their runner-up finish at the Superior Invitational on Friday, Jan. 11, the Sutton Mustangs hit the road this past Saturday to challenge the field at the Shelton Invite.

After falling short of Smith Center, KS at the Superior meet, Sutton, behind the fact that they had seven individual champions at Shelton, rolled past second place Arapahoe, 182-150, to claim the team title.

Unbeaten Lee Carlson kicked off the title winning gold medal performances, as Carlson, who owns a 30-0 record and is the top ranked Class C wrestler in the 126-pound class, pinned his way to the weight class title in Shelton.

Carlson pinned Sam Morales of Shelton in 42 seconds, pinned Arapahoe’s Shane Sieja in 2:15 and pinned Carson Mason of South Loup in his third match in 2:17.